Techno-economic analysis of active optical network migration toward next-generation optical access

Active optical networks (AONs) have been one of the most deployed fiber access solutions in Europe. However, with the increasing traffic demand, the capacity of the existing AONs is becoming insufficient. For the legacy AONs, there are two major variants of architectures, namely, point-to-point and active star. Considering the different characteristics of these two AON architectures, this paper proposes and analyzes several migration paths toward next-generation optical access (NGOA) networks offering a minimum 300 Mbit/s sustainable bit rate and 1 Gbit/s peak bit rate to every end customer. Furthermore, this paper provides detailed descriptions of the network cost modeling and the processes for AON migration. The total cost of ownership (TCO) is evaluated for the proposed migration paths, taking into account different migration starting times, customer penetration, node consolidation, and business roles in the fiber access networks. The migration from AON to NGOA can be economically feasible. The results indicate that a network provider plays a key business role and is responsible for the major part of the TCO for AON migration. Moreover, performing node consolidation during AON migration can be beneficial from a cost point of view, especially in rural areas.